Adjustable door jamb



July 17, 1962 J. c. MEHAFFY ADJUSTABLE DOOR JAMB Filed July 18, 1960 INVENTOR JOSEPH C. MEHAFFY A TTORNEY United States Patent() 3,044,130 ADJUSTABLE DR .AMB Joseph C. Mehay, Zl Smith Ave., Kirkwood, Mo. Filed July 18, 1960, Ser. No. 45,373 2 Claims. (Cl. 1Z0-11) Metallic doors and jarnbs are employed at great advantage in commercial and industrial construction such as warehouses `and such buildings. Metal jarnbs however have not been as popular as their advantages would indicate for residential construction.

One of the principal objections is that in residences the problems of weatherproong and of efficiency of construction have provided for some time difficult obstacles in the eld.

The principal object of my invention is to provide an Aadjustable door jamb combination which carries both an inside door and an outside door or storm door.

A second object of my invention is to provide a door jamb which can be accommodated to any width Wall.

A third object of my invention is to provide a door jamb which is formed of telescoping pieces of extruded metal sections.

A further "object of my invention is to provide a door jarnb which can be formed of pieces of a length less than the full length of the jamb.

Another object of my invention is to provide a door jamb which is fully waterproofed and Weatherproofed against moisture by a membrane seal.

A further object ot my invention is to provide a construction which will prevent condensation due to transfer from the outside of cold so that moisture c'ondenses on the inside.

An additional object of my invention is to provide a jarnb construction which can be put in place immediately after the masonry has set up. First the jamb and the storm door are put in place to close up the place. VThen later the inside door is put in place.

These and other objects of my invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art of jamb construction from a study of the following speciiication and the claims appended thereto, together with the drawing.

`In the drawings:

HGURE l is a cross-sectional View of my novel jamb construction; and f FIGURE 2 is a detail View of a manner of securing together two small portions of the jarnb extension.

In FIGURE l my door jamb structure is shown to be formed of three pieces of extruded metal, aluminum or steel being the metals of choice.

Numeral 1 is given to the outer extrusion. It is called this because it carries the outer door or the so-calied storm door 2. Numeral 3 is given to the inner extrusion which carries the inner door 4. Between the inner extrusion and the outer extrusion is disposed the extender extrusion section 5.

The outer extrusion 1 is formed of a box-like section 6, to which is integrally attached a U-shaped section '7. At the left side of FIGURE 1 the U-shaped section '7 is seen to terminate in a strip section S. At the right side of FIGURE l the U-shaped section is seen to carry the hinge 9. The hinge 9 is attached to the U-haped section 7 by means of bolts 1il and 11 which are fastened f to the inner side of the U-shaped section 7 with the nuts 12 and 13 respectively. The hinge 9 is fastened 'to the outer door 2 by means of the wood screws 14 and 15, shown in dotted lines.

The box-like section 6 terminates at 16 in an open end,` having tapered sides, which is illed with a strip of compressible Styrofoam 17. The portion of the boxlike section 6 which lies next to the outer door 2 when vtions and fixed in place.

Then I take at iirst the length of the outer extrusion ice e Patented July 17, 1962 that door is in the closed position, holds a strip of neoprene 18 in a recess cutkinto the box-like section. The closing of the door 2 against the neoprene strip 13 compresses the portion of neoprene lying outside the recess and provides a tight seal between the door and the boxlike section 6.

The extender section 5 isalso of a box-like shape. At its lower portion it terminates in an open end 19 having tapered sides. This'open end is lledwith a strip of compressible Styrofoam 26. At its upper portion, the closed end of the extender section is tapered also and is covered with a U-shaped strip of neoprene l also, which is held to the metal Surface of the closed end by the use of adhesive.

The inner extrusion 3 has a tapered upper end 2,1.

which is covered with a strip of neoprene on fourfsurfaces and held to these four surfaces with adhesive.

The inner extrusion carries a butt hinge 22 by means of two bolts 23, 24 threaded into the body of the extrusion 3. door 4 by meansof two wood screws 25, 26 shown in dotted lines. The lower portion of the inner lextrusion 3 has an ornamental guard section 27.

It will be noted that the taper on the upper end of the extender Section5 and the taper on the upper portion of the innerV extrusion 3 cooperate respectively with and t into the lower end of the outer extrusionv 1 and the extender section 5.

For assembly in position, l viirst cut a length of each extrusion 1, 3 and 5 of `a length equal to the length of the doorway, that is what is called the rough jamb length. l mitre each end of the 3 lengths. It will of course be understood that there are only two hinges on each door. These are placed in the appropriate posiand ix it yagainst the outside masonry. I attach it'into l place by placing the large metal screw 28 through the outer masonry anddI place the large metal screwr29 through the side of the tapered end of the section into the rough jamb. Then l lay the extender section in place so that its upper tapered end lies inside the open tapered sides at the position 16. And then I place the inner extrusion in position so that its upper tapered end lies insidge the open tapered sides of the extender section at 1 Then I force the three extrusions together until ythe end 3h of the inner extrusion lies against the inside wall of the house. In forcing these extrusions together it will be `found that the tapers on the ends 16, the upper end of 5, on 19 and on 21 have all telescoped together until they have accommodated to the depth of the door- "way between the outer door and the inner door. In fact supplied in various widths, corresponding to the depths of various doorways. However it will be seen that this arrangement of telescoping ends fitting into tapered open sided ends allows for some play of a matter of an inch or so at each side of the extender section. That is the upper end of the extender section can be forced in for a matter of an inch or more into the open end 16 of the section 1. The same is true of the depth of penetration of the end 21 into the end 19.

In both cases, no matter how far the telescoping ends are forced together, the action is the same: A tight seal The butt hinge 22 is attached to the inner y.

is formed between the neoprene 18 and the compressible Styrofoam 17 or 2@ lin either case. l

The inner door 4 also when closed rests tightly against a Vstripvof neoprene positioned in a recess in the innerl 'extrusion 3, vwhichseals the opening betweenthe door 4 and the neoprene 18 when the Vdoor Vis closed. The neoprene 1,8 is an integral part of the strip 33 in the recess of extrusion 3. Y

The portion over the doorway is cut, mitred and assembled inthe customary way, except that three ex'- truded pieces are used for that as theyV were for the side. Also of course no hinges are employed. rIhen the other side of the doorway is formed, cut, mitred' and assembled as the first one was to provide a complete doorway which has been adjusted in width to conform to the depth of the doorway as left rough nished by the carpenters. Y v

It will benoted that the neoprene at 18 and 33 serves to preventV metalfrom touching metal. The neoprene insulation therefor serves to prevent the cold outside from making the inner extrusion cold -by conduction. This ar- 4 without departing from the essence of the invention. I

rangement thereby prevents moisture from condensing on the inner extrusion inside the house, which has heretofore been a very diicult problem,

When masonry walls exist onthe inside of the house my adjustableV door jamb construction can be used. In Y each such case only one door is attached andl use sections 1( and 3 together to form the adjustable door jamb and I use the extender section in suchcases'where there yare extremely thick Walls.

Itk will be noted that at various positions Vmarked by numeral 34 l have provided a iiute extension on each of the extrusions. The ute extension contains a` hole which has the followingpurpose. If I have a short length as in FIGURE 2 left over and wish to use Vit'I can take a small piece Yof metal rod 35 and place it in the abutting ends of two similar extrusions in each tlute extension to form an integral piece'which is as longV as the two shorter pieces of the similar extrusions.

I usually use intend to limit my invention only by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an adjustable door jamb for a house doorway having an inner wall surface and an outer Wall surface, an'router extrusion having a U-shaped section adapted toylie against the outer wall surface and a box-like section adapted to lie perpendicular to said outer wall surface, an outer door hinge portion on said outer extrusion between said U-shaped section and said boxlike section, an open end provided withY tapered sides on said boxlke section, an inner extrusion having an ornamental guard section adapted to lie against the inner wall surlface, a body portion on said inner extrusion adapted to lie perpendicular to said inner Wall surface and said outer` wall surface, said body portion adapted to carry hinges for an inner door, a tapered end on said inner extrusion on the end opposite the ornamental guard section, and an'extender extrusion having a box-like shape, an open end provided with tapered sides on the latter box-like shape, the opposite end of said latter box-like shape being tapered and telescopingly engaged with the open end of the box-like section on said outer extrusion, the said open end of said 'extender extrusion being telescoped over and cooperating with the tapered end of said inner extrusion.

2. The combination of claim 1 further characterized in that the'open end of the outer extrusion contains a strip of Styrofoam, the open end of the extender extrusion contains a strip of Styrofoam, the tapered end on said inner extrusion is covered with a strip of neoprene between said tapered end and the open end of the extender extrusion and the tapered end of said extender t extrusion is covered with a strip of neoprene between said tapered end of said extender extrusion and the open end of the outer extrusion.

a sealing compound between the two ends to keep out V40 moisture and water in such a case. Y

It will be understood that various modifications, variations and rearrangements may be made inV my invention References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITEDV STATES PATENTS 

